Amplify Your Impact:
How to Mulply the Eects of Your Inbound Markeng Program
© 2012 Marketo, Inc | US +1.877.260.MKTO (6586) | www.marketo.com | www.twier.com/marketo | blog.marketo.com
Whether you’re thinking of adopng inbound markeng or you’ve already begun, you’re in good
company: many marketers are beneng from the power of this tacc. Aer all, it helps you
connect with new prospects by giving them ways to nd and learn about you – without the high
cost or intrusion of more tradional, outbound markeng techniques.
But, be warned: inbound markeng alone cannot drive the maximum revenue possible; it
must be incorporated into the overall markeng mix if you want to see boom-line results.
Unfortunately, many social media gurus and some inbound markeng soluons don’t educate
marketers on how to create this mix. This paper does. In it, we cover what should be included in
your markeng mix – a well-balanced combinaon of outbound and inbound markeng – and
how to achieve this without breaking the bank. We also explore some misconcepons about
inbound markeng. And we discuss what we call the Inbound Markeng Mulplier, which will
help you dramacally improve the results of your inbound markeng programs.
Amplify Your Impact: How to Mulply the Eects of Your Inbound Markeng Program
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© 2012 Marketo, Inc | US +1.877.260.MKTO (6586) | www.marketo.com | www.twier.com/marketo | blog.marketo.com
Inbound Markeng 101
The days of relying solely on tradeshows, cold calls, and print adversements
are over. The fact is that people tune out many tradional forms of markeng.
And who can blame them? Let’s face it, we all screen telemarkeng calls,
commercials, and direct mail, to name a few. Prospecve buyers can aord to
do so because we live in a world where they can educate themselves before
engaging with sales. The Internet allows them to research their opons without
the annoyance of a hard sales pitch.
In the new world where buyers are in control of self-educang, your job as a
marketer is not to nd leads; it is to help leads nd you. Inbound markeng
is a way of reaching prospects in this new buying model. In fact, as outbound
markeng gets less eecve and more annoying, inbound markeng takes on a
bigger role in your markeng mix.

Peers
Magazines
Sales Rep
$
Online
Q&A
Trade
Shows
HELLO
Social
Networks
Business
Networks
Online
Video
Email
Marketing
@
Virtual
Events
Direct Mail
Buyer
1980s
Analyst
Peers
Magazines
Sales Rep
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Trade
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• Podcasts/Videocasts
• Presentaons
• Press Releases
• Product Data Sheets
• Reference Guides
• Resource Libraries
Get Creave About Content
We know it can be overwhelming to consistently
generate a steady stream of content. So turn to
other resources, whether inving those outside
of your organizaon – such as industry analysts
and bloggers – to contribute content, or curang
content on a theme that appeals to your target
audience. The bonus? By surrounding your own
content with that from third pares, you’re seen
as a trusted resource and your credibility rises.
• RSS/XML Feeds
• Surveys
• Radio/TV/Web TV
• Videos
• Webinars/Webcasts
• White Papers
• Widgets
• Workbook
Amplify Your Impact: How to Mulply the Eects of Your Inbound Markeng Program
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© 2012 Marketo, Inc | US +1.877.260.MKTO (6586) | www.marketo.com | www.twier.com/marketo | blog.marketo.com
Expanding Visibility and Reach
with SEO and Social
The concept of search engine opmizaon (SEO) will play a big part in your

Where Inbound Markeng
Goes Wrong
Acme Soware is a one-year old soware company looking to grow
faster than larger competors. Its rst few deals closed because
of investor relaonships and early press (and a great product, of
course). But it then needed to acquire more customers quickly with
lile markeng budget. It turned to inbound markeng. The company
created a blog, Twier account, Facebook page, and LinkedIn group
and started using inbound markeng soware. It also wrote two white
papers and used these as promoons in all its social channels. At rst,
it seemed like progress was being made. Website trac rose, and a few
people lled out forms on the site. Aer a few months, the blog had
almost 70 subscribers and the Twier account had aracted nearly 200
followers (though many are competors or industry analysts). Acme
connued to follow best pracces for inbound markeng, so it regularly
added to its collecon of content, and made sure the content was
educaonal. By the end of the year, growth from inbound had slowed
and Acme had only closed a couple of deals from this channel. What
went wrong?
It can be common for organizaons that implement an inbound markeng
strategy to see an early li. However, while early results are strong, the
leads can dwindle to a trickle. Even if you’re seeing a consistent, steady
stream of leads lling the funnel from inbound sources, you may be
struggling to convert those leads into sales. Why? Because there’s a
misconcepon that inbound markeng is enough, that it’s the silver bullet
to success.
Here are some reasons why inbound markeng is not a stand-alone
markeng strategy:
• Your aim is too wide. Inbound works by “carpet bombing” the
Internet with content in the hopes people will nd you. When

product or soluon. Aer all, those in the early stages of the buying cycle
are looking for educaonal (i.e., non-promoonal) informaon.
• Others may know you exist, but don’t understand what you do. Think
about all the companies whose blog posts you read or Twier accounts
you follow. Do you really know what each of them does? And, even if you
do, do you know if their product is the right t for your organizaon? If you
answered no, you’re not alone. That’s because the educaonal content that
is produced for inbound markeng oen doesn’t supply these answers.
And it’s why you oen need to pair markeng automaon with inbound
markeng (more on this in a bit).
You must share your content where your prospects spend me, taking into
consideraon industry- and locaon-focused sites and other venues, and
even less popular social media sites. The key is to understand where your
prospects spend me and then to establish a presence there. And don’t be
afraid to ask others to share your content, whether bloggers, prospects,
or partners, as they will oen have a broader reach than you do. You can
encourage pass-along by adding social-sharing buons to your content,
landing pages, and emails.
Amplify Your Impact: How to Mulply the Eects of Your Inbound Markeng Program
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• You aren’t reaching the decision makers. We have consistently found that
leads generated through inbound markeng are oen not the nal decision
makers for B2B products. Why? It’s unlikely that CXOs are going to spend
me trolling the web for blogs or other content. It’s far more likely that
they assign this exercise to someone working for them. If you are pung
too much emphasis on these inbound leads without fully qualifying them –
and if your competors are reaching the decisions makers – your inbound
markeng eorts may be wasted.
• Somemes you can’t break through the noise. Many mes companies

reason, if there few or no people to consume your content, it’s not ecient to create it.
Instead you must focus on other outbound markeng channels.
• Inbound markeng has a diminishing return. What does this mean? Wikipedia denes
diminishing returns as a “decrease in the marginal (per-unit) output of a producon
process as the amount of a single factor of producon is increased, while the amounts
of all other factors of producon stay constant.” In the world of markeng, this means
there’s not a direct correlaon between what you put in and what you get out.
Let’s say, for example, a company publishes three blog posts per week and signs up 20
new subscribers per week. If it saw an increasing return (or prong return), you would
expect that six blogs posted per week would net 40 new subscribers, but this is not
typically the case. In other words, increased output is not directly linked to a greater
number of leads or customers or higher prot. You need to strategically determine
where to spend your me – especially if you have a limited amount of resources. This
doesn’t mean that the posts won’t have a long-lasng eect; it just means that each
addional inbound markeng eort may not yield as much return as the previous eort.
If you’ve goen this far in the paper, you might be feeling frustrated or upset. You may have
been hoping that inbound markeng was going to be the markeng soluon of your dreams.
Or you may be surprised by its inherent aws. Our intenon isn’t to disappoint you, but to
make you think about the markeng you are doing. We LOVE inbound markeng; we see
it as a key to our success. You just need to be clear: inbound markeng done in isolaon
doesn’t lead to success.
How Some Companies Make Inbound Markeng Work
Many of us can think of a company or two that is making great
strides in inbound markeng. So how do they achieve those
results? What they have that you may not:
1. A good number of sta dedicated to inbound programs. We
explained how the law of diminishing returns means that you
probably won’t double your li by producing six blog posts
instead of three. But what if you could churn out 30 blog
posts? Companies with huge inbound markeng teams can

the Inbound Markeng Mulplier:
1. An outbound markeng strategy
2. A corporate communicaons strategy
3. A nurturing or markeng automaon strategy
Before we describe how to mulply the impact of your inbound markeng
leads with these other elements, we have to agree on something: markeng
to your target market is not shameful. In fact, the denion of markeng per
Merriam-Webster is “the act or process of selling or purchasing in a market.”
And if you’re not ulmately helping your company sell its products, what
value do you oer?
Oen those that use inbound markeng are so used to creang thought
leadership for lead generaon that they view any promoonal content in a
negave light. Markeng is important, even when promoonal. Again, let’s
turn to Merriam-Webster, which says promoon means the “furtherance
of the acceptance and sale of merchandise through adversing, publicity,
or discounng.” In other words, it’s one more step in the process of
making a sale. It’s a maer of shiing your mind-set. Rather than viewing
promoons as sleazy or underhanded, think of them as providing the type of
informaon that your targeted prospects are seeking as they move further
along the path to purchase. It’s just that to do it right you should only direct
“promoonal” content to those who will be interested, not to everyone in
your database or in purchased lists.
Now let’s take a closer look at the Inbound Markeng Mulplier.
Combine Outbound and Inbound
for Greater Results
Outbound markeng is any paid markeng – both online and oine – used
to acquire new leads. It includes everything from trade shows to pay-per-
click markeng and is crical to growing inbound markeng. Why? Well,
when a new piece of content is launched, inbound markeng supports that
content, for example, by sharing it in social media channels, making it faster

Inbound markeng doesn’t replace corporate markeng, but should
work hand in hand with it. By establishing a consistent brand and set
of messages, your company becomes recognizable and trusted. And
by conjuring feelings of trust, knowledge, and quality in the minds of
prospects, you have the opportunity to stand out in the deluge of content
available online. You may not be the only one doing what you do, but
you want to be thought of as the best. Think of it like the Pepsi-or-Coke
argument. A Pepsi drinker chooses to drink Pepsi even though she is aware
of Coke. That’s because brand loyalty is powerful and long lasng. Once
you establish a strong brand image, inbound markeng can carry it far and
wide. At the same me, you’ll see a greater return on inbound markeng
because people will be more recepve to your content.
• Capture Your Target: Knowing and appealing to your target audience
is one thing, reaching them is another. Let’s say your target market
is Fortune 1000 companies. Through outbound markeng, you can
target this group exclusively by purchasing lead-generaon programs
where you only pay for leads that sasfy your criteria. This makes your
campaigns very ecient and keeps your database clear of names that
will never purchase from you. In inbound markeng you can target
specic groups in your content, but you can’t do anything to ensure that
the content reaches and is consumed by your target audience.
The Personal Touch: When you meet a prospect face-to-face, or even talk
to them on the phone, you establish a relaonship that can be far more
powerful than one developed via any email or tweet. With outbound
markeng you can build the one-on-one relaonships that are not possible
to develop with inbound markeng.
Amplify Your Impact: How to Mulply the Eects of Your Inbound Markeng Program
10.
© 2012 Marketo, Inc | US +1.877.260.MKTO (6586) | www.marketo.com | www.twier.com/marketo | blog.marketo.com
Markeng Automaon

• Creates new landing pages in minutes without IT: Markeng
automaon empowers you to create and launch relevant and
opmized landing page whenever needed – and in turn, generate
dramacally higher conversion rates.
• Shortens sales cycles: By idenfying, priorizing, and connecng with
the best leads, you can close deals faster.
• Lets sales know when their prospects are engaging online: With
insight into how much content prospects have consumed and how
much me they’ve spent on your site, your sales reps can strike while
the iron is hot.
• Automates repeve tasks: By automang tasks that can be me
consuming to handle manually – such as managing leads – you can
spend your me on more strategic iniaves.
Amplify Your Impact: How to Mulply the Eects of Your Inbound Markeng Program
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• Delivers sophiscated reporng and analycs: As marketers are
increasingly held accountable for the impact of their acvies, they
need tools that help them assess – and increase – their eecveness
and impact on revenue.
• Wins more deals and generates higher revenue per deal: By driving
a greater number of qualied leads, streamlining the enre sales
cycle, and focusing on the most promising opportunies, markeng
automaon helps you generate beer results.
While each of these can make a big impact on your markeng, by combining
them you can dramacally improve the results of your markeng program –
and reduce costs across the sales and markeng organizaon.
Inbound Markeng: What Not to Do
Finally, you should know that not all inbound markeng is created equal.
We consistently see companies using the following bad pracces in

• Generic SEO: While search engine opmizaon can help your site and
content get found online, a generic approach can drive the wrong
trac to your site. Again, it gets back to how well you understand your
prospecve buyers and their concerns. If you simply focus on high-level
keywords in your content and pages, you’re going to aract a broad
range of people, many of whom are probably not in the market for
your oering. Many companies fall into this trap because they rely on
free SEO tools, or ones that come with their CMS or inbound markeng
soluon. By allocang a bit more of your budget to SEO and calling in
the experts, companies oen realize an exponenal ROI.
• Lack of Sales Visibility – You can generate all the great leads in the
world using inbound markeng, but it won’t amount to anything if your
sales team isn’t in sync with your inbound markeng acvies. Imagine
someone tweets that they are looking at three dierent vendors, and
then visits your site the next day and downloads a white paper. If
your sales reps can’t see both the social comments and the content
consumpon in their CRM system, you risk them delivering the wrong
message when reaching out to the prospect.
• Measuring on ‘First Touch’ Alone – Knowing the source of a lead and
aribung revenue to that lead source doesn’t actually tell you how to
opmize your campaigns. Instead, you need to know how much each
program – inbound and outbound – inuenced the purchase. Some
acvies are going to create buzz, others downloads (i.e., leads), and
others will drive purchases. If you only measure the lead source, you
won’t accurately be gauging the value of other important programs that
ulmately contribute to revenue.
So how do you move from bad to best pracces? Use a robust markeng
automaon or revenue performance management system to opmize
inbound programs that generate leads and help move leads through the
sales funnel. Not only will your company see increased revenue from

and places you can make them aware of your experse and content.
Forums and online communies: Parcipang in online discussions is
a way to nd out what issues are top of mind for prospects, while also
posioning you as a valuable resource of informaon.
White papers and eBooks: White papers are typically 4-8 pages in
length, and explore a business issue, helping readers understand
best pracces and opons. While typically longer than white papers,
eBooks also explore business issues but oen in a more conversaonal
and visually appealing manner.
Videos: Snack-sized content in a visual format helps you engage busy
prospects that may not have me to read your white paper or eBook.
Amplify Your Impact: How to Mulply the Eects of Your Inbound Markeng Program
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Outbound Markeng:

Online Campaigns
Banner and display: An adversement appearing on a website.
Virtual events: A tradeshow, conference, or meeng online.
Webinars: A presentaon or workshop delivered over the web to educate
prospecve buyers.
Sponsored newsleer and emails: Allows you access to a target audience
that might not otherwise be reached.
Oine Campaigns
Tradeshows: In-person exhibits that oer the chance to display your
soluon and interact one-on-one with prospects.
Roadshows: A series of markeng events staged at mulple locaons to
generate interest in your company’s ideas or oerings.
Direct mail: Adversing sent to a prospect’s home through a mail service.
TV & radio adversing: Using the radio or TV to deliver a scripted

Lead scoring: A shared sales and markeng methodology for ranking leads in
order to determine their sales-readiness.
Metrics that Maer:

Closed Loop Reporng: A way to measure the impact of markeng acvies
on revenues.
Revenue Performance Management: Opmizing interacons with buyers
across the revenue cycle to accelerate predictable revenue growth.
Amplify Your Impact: How to Mulply the Eects of Your Inbound Markeng Program
15.
© 2012 Marketo, Inc | US +1.877.260.MKTO (6586) | www.marketo.com | www.twier.com/marketo | blog.marketo.com
Michael Brito
Book: Smart Business, Social Business
Blog: www.britopian.com
Twier: @Britopian
Paul Gillin
Blog: www.PaulGillin.com
Twier: @pgillin
Adam Metz
Website: www.AdamMetz.com
Blog: hp://adammetz.com/metzmash
Twier: @theMetz
Douglas Karr
Blog: www.MarkengTechBlog.com
Twier: @DouglasKarr
Ann Handley
Book: Content Rules
Website: www.MarkengProfs.com
Blog: www.mpdailyx.com
Twier: @MarkengProfs

Frank Reed
Website: www.FrankReed.com
Blog: hp://www.markengpilgrim.com
Twier: @FrankReed
Maya Grinberg
Webiste: www.Wildreapp.com
Blog: hp://blog.wildreapp.com
Twier: @Papayamaya
Kipp Bodnar
Blog: www.SocialMediaB2B.com
Twier: @kippbodnar
Dan Zarrella
Blog: www.DanZarrella.com
Twier: @DanZarrella
18 Must-Know Inbound
Markeng Experts
Need help geng started or advancing your current inbound markeng
strategy? The experts below represent the best of the best when it comes to
inbound markeng. Some have books, others consulng rms, but all have
the A+ smarts to push your inbound markeng to the next level.
Amplify Your Impact: How to Mulply the Eects of Your Inbound Markeng Program
16.
© 2012 Marketo, Inc | US +1.877.260.MKTO (6586) | www.marketo.com | www.twier.com/marketo | blog.marketo.com
Tap into the Power of
Inbound Markeng
Companies seeking to take advantage of all ways of reaching and
connecng with prospecve buyers need to include inbound
markeng in the mix. But the key is just that – to incorporate inbound
markeng into a larger group of markeng taccs that amplify the
impact of inbound markeng acvies. By building a markeng

IBM-020712